Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Yoga may help ease your back pain but it can't cure your emotional woes.

The ancient practice may help relieve stress in that it's an effective way of reducing moderate lower back pain, according to a recent study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine and funded by the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

But there was no other evidence that it provided any other mental health benefits outside of physical ones produced by stretching.

Researchers at Seattle's Group Health Research Institute divided 228 people looking to relieve back pain into three groups – one was given a book of effective stretching routines and the others were given 12 weeks of weekly yoga or stretching instruction in a classroom setting.

Those who attended the classes were told to practice for 20 minutes a day at home.

Being in a class made a big difference – except it didn't matter whether it was a stretching or a yoga class.

About 50% of patients in the yoga or stretching classes reported feeling much better or completely better in relation to their back pain and function, compared with about 20% of patients in the self-care group, the lead study author, Karen Sherman of Group Health Research Institute, told The Wall Street Journal.

Those who took classes also were more likely to complete the exercises and those given the self-help book were more likely to slack off and receive less of a benefit.